Abstract [en]

Writing or revising a curriculum is often an extremely complex and contradictory process (Young & Diem 2014) and can be viewed as a discursive battlefield (e.g. Ball 1991, Levinson et al 2009, Ozga 2000, Taylor et al 1997). Furthermore, educational policies can be seen as complex, ongoing social practices of normative cultural production constituted by diverse actors/stakeholders across diverse contexts (Taylor 2004) and thus interesting to analyse, especially in "globalizing and new times" (Ball, Goodson & Maguire 2007). Despite the discourses of globalization we also experience worldwide a tightening of control on students, educators, administrators, and the schooling process in general through national-level educational policies (Young & Diem 2014). There are interesting tensions to pay attention to between the local and global. This paper outlines various constructions of the pupil/the future citizen and discursive tensions with a particular focus on the latest curriculum in Sweden, Lgr11, Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre, Läroplan för grundskolan, föreskoleklass och fritidshemmet 2011). We have been particularly interested in issues such as: How is the 'right' citizen presented and depicted and what values are highlighted – at both national and global level? Whose history is made visible and what voices are heard? What groups or categories are identified? In order to get a comparative perspective, we have asked the same questions to the previous curriculum, Lpo94, Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre.Theoretically our contribution primarily is informed by the discourse analytical research field (e.g. Ball 1991; Taylor, 1997; Taylor et al., 1997) and notably by critical discourse analysis (see Fairclough, 1992, 2003; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Critical discourse analysis examines how texts construct representations of the world and there is an emphasis on highlighting how practices and texts are ideologically shaped by relations of power. Tensions between different conceptions and positionings concern what counts as valuable knowledge also related to the local and global context, which is emphasised in our study.